FM2009 - Official Manchester United Thread - The Home of the Champions

[fmFutbolManager]

Damn Toulalan chose Arsenal over me!!!

[Lucaldo17]

Damn Toulalan chose Arsenal over me!!!

That's cos of Wenger

[Reloaded]

I'm struggling to get Dimitar to play as well as he is capable of doing, he rarely scores and I can't see why.

[Mulligan88]

hey everyone i am half way through my first season and i thought i would let you all know how im getting along and see what yous think.

well i should start from the start, i did not ask for more money and i did not adjust the budget. my firsts thoughts where all in all the team was strong enough to do what was required, but i had a problem with ronaldo being injured, leaving me weak on the flanks, so i brought in Zoran Tosic for £8.5M, and so far i would consider him to be a bargain, he has featured regularly enough for me and produced some very good performances, but yet is happy to sit on the side lines for a while. I also snapped up Henri saivet just as one for the future.

OUTS: well none actually, not perminant anyway, just a few loans Fabio, Rafael, Saivet, Possebon and Gibson.

My main thinking here was i like to have squad players, now i could have got rid of the likes of fletcher or o'shea but they are good squad players and can do a job when asked of.

So far i have one community shield and the wold club championships, im in the semi final of the league cup, 3rd round of the FA cup, first knockout round of the champs league and sitting first in the premier league by 4 points with 18 played and also have 2 games in hand due to the world club championships.

I am playing 4-4-2 and as you can see by how im going im doing quite well with it. Mt top goal scorer is berbatov with 16 in 22(2) Ronaldo has 9, tevez with 8 and Rooney with 6. I have to say i am disappointed with rooney, but then im playing him as a FC role and with a free role, he does do alot for the team.

So far in 31 games i have scored 65 goals and conceded 15.

oh i forgot to say, in November i was looking through the transfer list as i do every other week, and saw Van Der Vart for sale, so i couldn't resist and had to ask for money so i got him for 11M and he comes 1st January. Has anyone hand any experience with him, have i wasted my money?

thoughts and opinions would be great

[Armchair_Athlete]

If anyone is looking to sell players to raise money i'd sell fletcher, I just sold him to Man City for £50 million:D and had an offer for o'shea of £26 million but he rejected the contract and I'll be doing well to get £6 million now:mad:

[Reloaded]

£50million!?! I thought I'd done well with £14.75m to Newcastle

[bromi88]

can someone please help me im stuck i just cant get my strikers to score ok im top of the league and unbeaten all season but im lucky to score more then one in a game, i have sold tevez an brought in owen with rooney an berbatov an there just pants please help me out

[superboomer23]

Bought:

Arshavin

Veloso

Diara

Klaas Jan-Huntelaar

Out:

Vidic

Tevez

each about 35 mil to Real

[superboomer23]

can someone please help me im stuck i just cant get my strikers to score ok im top of the league and unbeaten all season but im lucky to score more then one in a game, i have sold tevez an brought in owen with rooney an berbatov an there just pants please help me out

i made Roonie to play ST with arrow back and both strikers full creativity...15 goals in 3 games

[1a2a3a]

how do you guys get the PA ability of the player when the fm scout is not out yet? where do i look for PA?

[soul82]

Hi guys 1st post in here.

Anyway was just wondering how many of you actually get Berba to perform in you squad? and how?

Oooh for info you can sell Tevez at 50mil easily at the start of the season if any of you are planning to. I had tottenham coming in with that bid for tevez

[gbshjdgkzf]

is it possible to retrain matias fernandez to become a mr/amr?? his preferred foot is right so i'm guessing it shouldn't be a problem. want him as a replacement ro c. ron while he is injured.

any recomendations for that position while ronaldo is injured???

[evolutionxr]

anyone have any opinion on me getting arshavin as added cover? i have about 18mil pounds left to spare.

[rberbe2002]

anyone have any opinion on me getting arshavin as added cover? i have about 18mil pounds left to spare.

i wouldnt bother. looks like you have pretty good team as it is.

[maverick_nc1]

Mav? You don't seem to be a fan of Moutinho, any specific reason? Just interested is all....

Ha ha you noticed?! Perhaps its just a personal thing but the boy always turns out to be a letdown for me, including on FM09. Maybe its his PPM 'dwells on ball' which offends me im not sure. If anyone gets him to play well consistently then fair play, i wont be parting with any of my transfer budget to sign him again when there are better options out there though.

What is the general consensus here on what FORMATION people are using with United? I started with a flat 442 but have now gone on to 4-3-3 no wingers. Works really well, only problem is accomodating Ronnie but retrained to play up front he's a monster.

[ab328]

anyone have any opinion on me getting arshavin as added cover? i have about 18mil pounds left to spare.

Yeah, there really isn't any point. I mean you have Higuain, Sanchez et al. Save the money for positions you really need to strengthen.

[rberbe2002]

Ha ha you noticed?! Perhaps its just a personal thing but the boy always turns out to be a letdown for me, including on FM09.

me too. Motinho/Veloso/Aguerro. never perform for me.

[ab328]

i made Roonie to play ST with arrow back and both strikers full creativity...15 goals in 3 games

Hi mate, what formation are you using? Details on positions etc...

[gbshjdgkzf]

i made Roonie to play ST with arrow back and both strikers full creativity...15 goals in 3 games

if you play this, won't rooney's fw become rarely??

[crazy gra]

If anyone is looking to sell players to raise money i'd sell fletcher, I just sold him to Man City for £50 million:D and had an offer for o'shea of £26 million but he rejected the contract and I'll be doing well to get £6 million now:mad:

But is £50m for Fletcher realistic? I the most Man Utd would get for him at the moment is £10m, perhaps a bit more from City. If I manage to sell him I'm not going to try to get any more than £20m for him and even that's a bit much.

Same with O'Shea. £8m is the most Utd would get for him IRL.

[gbshjdgkzf]

But is £50m for Fletcher realistic? I the most Man Utd would get for him at the moment is £10m, perhaps a bit more from City. If I manage to sell him I'm not going to try to get any more than £20m for him and even that's a bit much.

Same with O'Shea. £8m is the most Utd would get for him IRL.

i agree with you on most points but i think o' shea is worth more as compared to fletcher. fletcher is overrated in 09, even with his already half decent stats. was really amazed to see how low the stats of carrick, possebon, rafael, fabio and evans. especially carrick:( i would think that our youngsters are equally as good as arsenal's if not better!

[gbshjdgkzf]

there is a chelsea match in 6 days time. rooney would be out for 2 months if left to physio, while also out for 2 months if given an injection. IRL, rooney would want to play every game and i think he would want an injection but in this game, i fear giving him an injection would have a so called bad effect e.g. he may dislike me and be unhappy and he may demand to be transferred out.

URGENT!!! what should i do???

[maverick_nc1]

there is a chelsea match in 6 days time. rooney would be out for 2 months if left to physio, while also out for 2 months if given an injection. IRL, rooney would want to play every game and i think he would want an injection but in this game, i fear giving him an injection would have a so called bad effect e.g. he may dislike me and be unhappy and he may demand to be transferred out.

URGENT!!! what should i do???

Really depends who else you have to replace him and whether it is just a league game or an important cup game? Would it really be worth losing his services for further matches just to have him play v Chelsea? Check your fixture list, personally i wouldnt do it.

[rberbe2002]

there is a chelsea match in 6 days time. rooney would be out for 2 months if left to physio, while also out for 2 months if given an injection. IRL, rooney would want to play every game and i think he would want an injection but in this game, i fear giving him an injection would have a so called bad effect e.g. he may dislike me and be unhappy and he may demand to be transferred out.

URGENT!!! what should i do???

my opinon is i would never do it. you should suficient cover for him. if not just take a risk with what you have got.

[Lucaldo17]

Hey guys just finished my first season thought give a review

Premiership: I Finished 2nd behind Arsenal by 7 points :@

F.A Cup: Won on Penalties against Arsenal on penalties

Champions League: Knocked out by Arsenal, they are too hard!!!

League Cup: Knocked out by Liverpool in the Quater Finals

W.C.C: Won 3:0 against LDU de la Quito

European Super Cup: Won against Zenit Petersburg

Charity Shield: Beat Portsmouth

It was overall a succesful season was disappointed about the Premiership but a 3-1 Defeat to Sunderland 2nd to last game of the season clinched it!

Rooney was my top scorer with 15 Goals in 43(13) apps.

Ronaldo was my highest rated player with 7.68, 38(7) Apps. and 10 goals 17 assists

Tranfers In:

Joao Mountinho (Sporting Lisbon) £12.5 Mil

Guilherme (Cruzerio) £11.25 Mil

Matis Fernandez (Villereal) £16.75 Mil

Ezequiel Lavezzi (Lazio) £22.5 Mil

Davide Santon (Inter) £2 Mil

Gio dos Santos (Spurs) £15.75 Mil

Andres Guardado (Deportivo) £14.74 Mil

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Ajax) £23 Mil

Rafeal van der Vaart (R.Madrid) P/ex

Sergio Asenjo (Valladolid) £7.25 Mil

Total: £120 Mil

Transfers Out:

Richard Eckersley (Bournemouth) Loan

David Gray (Aberdeen) Loan

Fabio (Aberdeen) Loan

Rodrigo Possebon (Notts Forest) Loan

Sam Hewson (Queen of the South) Loan

Rafael (Aberdeen) Loan

James Chester (Livingston) Loan

Manucho (Aberdeen) Loan

Sam Hewson (Swansea) Loan again Fee £18K

Ron-Robert Zieler (Leverkusen) Loan

Tomas Kuszczak (Man City) £2.3 Mil

Carlos Tevez (R.Madrid) £35 Mil

Park Ji-Sung (Lyon) £7.5 Mil

Darren Fletcher (Inter) £32.5 Mil

Anderson (R.Madrid) P/Ex (van der Vaart) + £7.5 Mil

Jimmy Derbyshire Free

Total: £86 Mil

I've got O'Shea Leaving for Villa for £7.5 Mil and Micheal Owen comeing in for £4.4 Mil and im hopeing i can get rid of Lavezzi becasue he is awful, big waste of money!

Financial as you can see was a good year made £56.75 mil and our balence is £157.6 Mil.

[rberbe2002]

Hey guys just finished my first season thought give a review

Premiership: I Finished 2nd behind Arsenal by 7 points :@

F.A Cup: Won on Penalties against Arsenal on penalties

Champions League: Knocked out by Arsenal, they are too hard!!!

League Cup: Knocked out by Liverpool in the Quater Finals

W.C.C: Won 3:0 against LDU de la Quito

European Super Cup: Won against Zenit Petersburg

Charity Shield: Beat Portsmouth

It was overall a succesful season was disappointed about the Premiership but a 3-1 Defeat to Sunderland 2nd to last game of the season clinched it!

Rooney was my top scorer with 15 Goals in 43(13) apps.

Ronaldo was my highest rated player with 7.68, 38(7) Apps. and 10 goals 17 assists

Tranfers In:

Joao Mountinho (Sporting Lisbon) £12.5 Mil

Guilherme (Cruzerio) £11.25 Mil

Matis Fernandez (Villereal) £16.75 Mil

Ezequiel Lavezzi (Lazio) £22.5 Mil

Davide Santon (Inter) £2 Mil

Gio dos Santos (Spurs) £15.75 Mil

Andres Guardado (Deportivo) £14.74 Mil

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Ajax) £23 Mil

Rafeal van der Vaart (R.Madrid) P/ex

Sergio Asenjo (Valladolid) £7.25 Mil

Total: £120 Mil

Transfers Out:

Richard Eckersley (Bournemouth) Loan

David Gray (Aberdeen) Loan

Fabio (Aberdeen) Loan

Rodrigo Possebon (Notts Forest) Loan

Sam Hewson (Queen of the South) Loan

Rafael (Aberdeen) Loan

James Chester (Livingston) Loan

Manucho (Aberdeen) Loan

Sam Hewson (Swansea) Loan again Fee £18K

Ron-Robert Zieler (Leverkusen) Loan

Tomas Kuszczak (Man City) £2.3 Mil

Carlos Tevez (R.Madrid) £35 Mil

Park Ji-Sung (Lyon) £7.5 Mil

Darren Fletcher (Inter) £32.5 Mil

Anderson (R.Madrid) P/Ex (van der Vaart) + £7.5 Mil

Jimmy Derbyshire Free

Total: £86 Mil

I've got O'Shea Leaving for Villa for £7.5 Mil and Micheal Owen comeing in for £4.4 Mil and im hopeing i can get rid of Lavezzi becasue he is awful, big waste of money!

Financial as you can see was a good year made £56.75 mil and our balence is £157.6 Mil.

well done.. sounds good,

when did u sell fletcher to Inter? I've tried to get rid of him at the start of the season. Offered him out for 25m and only city wanna take him

[xx11]

I have just entered January 2009 and so far the original team is holding up well, however coming into december I got some good offers come in for players so I agreed to let some them go as they werent making alot of appearances anyways.

So for a review.

Competitions

Charity Shield - Lost 6-5 on penalties following a 0-0 draw

Super cup - Won 2-1 with goals from Nani and Berbatov following a tight match.

Champions league - Finished the group top on 12 points with 3 wins and 3 draws. Group included Juventus (won away, drew at home), FC twente (won home, drew away), and Sporting (won home, drew away).

World club championship - Won the final 5-0 over Saitama Utd. This was after a weakened team won the semi 4-0 against Pachuca.

Premiership - I currently hold a 7 point lead over Arsenal whom have a game in hand on me. I have played 19, won 16, drawn 3. Feel im not doing too bad in attack or defense having scored 42 and conceeded just 7. Out of those conceeded 4 were in december against newcastle in a 4-4 thriller which saw me come back from 3-1 down and almost win the match.

League Cup - Into semi finals which has me up against man city (whom I just beat 3-0 in the league )

FA cup – 3rd round match against Hull coming up.

Transfers

As previously stated, started the season with the same team as Ferguson left me. However transfers are starting to go through from deals made in December.

Sold:

Hargraeves – £30million to man city – hardly played and they came in with an offer of 20million. I pushed them up to an acceptable price.

Park - £16.75million to athletico Madrid – forced them up from £8million opening offer.

Newcastle cancelled a 22.5million deal for Fletcher after he picked them over Man City, so annoyed with that as Gibson and Possabon would have more first team involvement if he want..

Also Lee martin in contract talks with hull in regards to a £2.6million move away to them

May possibly look to sell others in this transfer window, but keeping my big names and no major name purchases.

Purchases

All purchases looking to the future, paying a fair whack but nothing like what im receiving. All offers made following the scouts picking the players out for me. Haggled prices down from what scouts said, but still a lot for youngsters

Jose Baxter - £5.25m

Henri Saviet - £6m

Mamadou Sakho – £9.5m

Martin Galvan - £4m (though he cant come for about a year )

Loans

Additional future stars out on loan are :

Danny Welbeck – Dundee in Scottish first division – Scored 9 in 17 apps

Fabio – Blackpool in English Championship – 22 apps

Formation

Currently using a 4-1-3-2 formation which seems to be doing well. Was originally using 4-3-1-2 but wasn’t as strong as I hoped.

GK: VDS/Foster

RB: Rafael/Brown/Neville

LB: Evra/Oshea

CB: Ferdinand/Evans

CB: Vidic/Evans

CM: Carrick/Fletcher/ (GIbso/Possebon)

AMR: Ronaldo/Giggs

AML: Nani/Giggs

AMC: Anderson/Scholes/Rooney

FC: Rooney/Tevez

FC: Berbatov/Tevez/Manucho

Performances

Best performers are my wingers – however everyone is improving since the recent formation change.

Ronaldo – 7.40 rating – 26(2) appearances - 7 goals – 12 assists

Nani – 7.33 rating – 17(6) appearances – 7 goals – 10 assists

As for my forwards. Would hope for more but still learning how to get the best out of them:

Berbatov:- 6.88 rating – 27(5) appearances – 17 goals – 5 assists

Rooney: - 6.81 rating - 24(5) appearances – 10 goals – 8 assists

Tevez: - 6.68 rating – 21(8) appearances – 8 goals - 5 assists

Manucho:- 6.29 rating – 4(10) appearances – 5 goals – 0 assists

[Lucaldo17]

well done.. sounds good,

when did u sell fletcher to Inter? I've tried to get rid of him at the start of the season. Offered him out for 25m and only city wanna take him

Well my former assistant Mike Phelan left and took charge oddly :S cos Inter we're like 13th in Jan.

And he wanted him and offered for him and i bummed it up a couple time and he took it .

It's just pot luck really m8

[rberbe2002]

Well my former assistant Mike Phelan left and took charge oddly :S cos Inter we're like 13th in Jan.

And he wanted him and offered for him and i bummed it up a couple time and he took it .

It's just pot luck really m8

where did the so called special one go? lol

[maverick_nc1]

Question - would it be a safe assumption to make that if either Targetman or Playmaker boxes are ticked, and the relevant associated player has a bad game, then your whole tactic is going to aswell?

Asked earlier with no replies, what formation are most people using for United? Havent had much joy with wingers personally (perhaps coz they only have little fellas like Tevez/Rooney to cross tho) so im playing 4-3-2-1.

[Lucaldo17]

I've just been given a 2 year contract extension for £170,000 a week :O

[Lisandro Lopez]

I've just been given a 2 year contract extension for £170,000 a week :O

Shame it's only a game a?

[maverick_nc1]

Shame it's only a game a?

Does this get taken out of the clubs budget along with the players/staff salaries? If so then your screwing your own club over!!

[crazy gra]

where did the so called special one go? lol

Get him in as the ass man!

I have just entered January 2009 and so far the original team is holding up well, however coming into december I got some good offers come in for players so I agreed to let some them go as they werent making alot of appearances anyways.

Hargreaves out

And you should have raided Everton for Rodwell, not Baxter, who is very undetermined.

[Lisandro Lopez]

Does this get taken out of the clubs budget along with the players/staff salaries? If so then your screwing your own club over!!

As far as I'm aware your wage will have no affect on your clubs wage budget. However I'm not 100% sure on that.

[sortitoutsi!!]

Really getting annoyed with some transfer offers coming in.

Does no club offer the cash all upfront? Offer from Madrid for Rooney, £30 M, none upfront, all paid over 24 months. Same for Park, Berbatov and Carrick.

It used to be just Spanish clubs that did it..really ****ing me off.

[Reloaded]

Question - would it be a safe assumption to make that if either Targetman or Playmaker boxes are ticked, and the relevant associated player has a bad game, then your whole tactic is going to aswell?

Asked earlier with no replies, what formation are most people using for United? Havent had much joy with wingers personally (perhaps coz they only have little fellas like Tevez/Rooney to cross tho) so im playing 4-3-2-1.

The Target man or playmaker thing you're talking about, it would seem logical if the team as a whole suffered if those players were marked out of a game or just played poorly but whether FM's match engine gets affected in the same way, I'm not sure. Probably.

[ab328]

Really getting annoyed with some transfer offers coming in.

Does no club offer the cash all upfront? Offer from Madrid for Rooney, £30 M, none upfront, all paid over 24 months. Same for Park, Berbatov and Carrick.

It used to be just Spanish clubs that did it..really ****ing me off.

It's more realistic. How many transfers are actually all paid up front, especially when concerning top players? Probably only Man City would actually give all the money up front.

[sortitoutsi!!]

It's more realistic. How many transfers are actually all paid up front, especially when concerning top players? Probably only Man City would actually give all the money up front.

But for Madrid to offer absolutely nothing upfront..c'mon I mean that's a bit ridiculous.

[Lucaldo17]

In dire need of a defensive midfielder! Carrick is leaveing for £20 mil and Mountinho isn't up to scratch yet, need a back up too Hargreaves!!

[UnlikelyStory]

Okay here's my review on my first season. Pretty good I think

Premiership: Won it by one point above Arsenal on the final day. Nerve racking final few fixtures!

F.A Cup: Defeated Portsmouth 2-0 to win

Champions League: Lost in the final to Barcelona 2-1 after extra time. Messi scored a late winner.

League Cup: Played reserves and lost to Arsenal in the semi final.

W.C.C: Won it 4-0 in the final!

European Super Cup: Defeated Zenit 3-0

Charity Shield: Beat Portsmouth on penalties. Rooney, Tevez and Berbatov all injured haha

Gutted losing to Barca in the final, but I had injuries to Vidic and Rafinha so my defense was weaker than normal. Delighted about the rest!

Matias Fernandez was my top scorer with 32 goals in all competitions. Best bit of business I've done!

Tranfers In:

Matis Fernandez (Villereal) £10.5m

Rafinha (Schalke) £13.5m

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (Ajax) £15m

Total: £39 Mil

Transfers Out:

Darren Fletcher (Man City) £20m

Ji-Sung Park (Sampdoria) £9m

Tomasz Kuszczak (Tottenham) £4m

Total: £33m

Huntelaar has been awful for me so I might get rid of him. Hargreaves is going in a few days to Seville for £21m and I have Asenjo and Van der Vaart on their way to me (£7.25m and £11.5m respectively). Need a new winger for backup and possibly another defender too. I have Brown and Evans on backup so need another central defender and another left back. Interest in O'Shea is high so I may cash in. Any ideas? I'll probably have around £30m to spend

[coolbananas]

Just started as Man U, first thing i did was sell Fletcher to Man City for £30m all upfront.

Looking at getting in a new right back and perhaps 2 midfielders of substancial quality.

[superboomer23]

i made Roonie to play ST with arrow back and both strikers full creativity...15 goals in 3 games

if you play this, won't rooney's fw become rarely??

at least he scores every game isn't what you want?

[rberbe2002]

if you play this, won't rooney's fw become rarely??

at least he scores every game isn't what you want?

whats fw?

[sortitoutsi!!]

First season review:

Premiership - won it by 3 points, on the last day of the season. Arsenal came 2nd, Chelsea 3rd and Liverpool 4th. Just pipped Citeh to the final CL spot.

FA Cup - lost to Everton 1-0 away at the 4th round.

Carling Cup - beat Spurs 3-2 in the final minuyte thanks to a Ronaldo penalty

Charity Shield - 2-1 victory over Pompey

Super Cup - victorious once again, 2-1.

World Club Championship - beat Saitama UTD 4-0 in the final. Walkover, would of played more youngsters if I had known.

Champions League - lost in the 1st knockout round against Munich. Went out on away goals, 6-6 on agg.

Tranfers in:

Huntelaar - Went through a spell where he was magnificent, then some poor and inconsistent performances.

Di Maria - Fantastic signing. Really made the LW spot his own, and with a league record of 15 (1) apps 2 goals 9 assists it's already his next season.

Camacho - Started well, but dropped down the pecking order as Hargreaves performances improved.

Kierrison - Initially bid £5 M for him. But as his contract was up in a couple of months and money is tight I decided to wait and get him on a free. He came at start of May I think it was. In his first game (the last of the season) he scored the 2 goals against Stoke I needed to win the league.

Out: Fletcher - Aston Villa for £23 M

Tevez - Real Madrid £26 M.

I'm quite unhappy with the financial situation to be honest. I made £57 M in one month, due to prize money, end of season standings, television revenue etc, but by the time they took ground maintenance out which was a massive £21 M, I guess to pay for the expansion, then the interest and wage payments I had only made a profit of £3 M!!

[superboomer23]

at least he scores every game isn't what you want?

whats fw?

fw - forward

[maverick_nc1]

Questions for you tactical geniuses please. I build my tactics based upon the fantastic TT&F but one thing is bothering me slightly - Defensive Line.

Now i know that in an attacking formation it is logical to have a high defensive line in order to camp in the opponents half, but on the same logic it strikes me that this will also reduce the time and space my attackers players have to work in. Surely with a deeper D-line the oppo will close me down higher up the pitch leaving gaps for my pacy and/or creative players to exploit??

Which brings me on to Forward Runs. From watching many matches it seems to me that players set to Forward runs often seem to get ahead of the build up play too quickly. Fine if its a direct passing game i would assume, but ive tried that and have often found these players get ahead of play too quickly and limit my passing options for the ball carrier. Strikers with high FWR get caught offside a lot and Wingers bolt off down the wings without the ball leaving limited passing options. The only players thus far i have found that benfit from FWR often are attacking fullbacks.

I would appreciate any and all comments and observations please.

NB. Used various tactics but basically stuck fairly rigidly to the mentality frameworks laid out in the TT&f document. Flat 442 being the most obvious.

[gandycoleuk]

After going off Football Manager for a while, I decided to wait for the new game to arrive and have promptly started my first United save on fm09:

I will be playing under my name which is Faiz Khan and I will turn 30 years of age on the 18th November in the 1st season. I have loaded up all English leagues as well as the top Spanish, Italian, French, German, Dutch, Scottish and Portuguese leagues.

I have got to the end of August in my 1st season. Looking at the expectations of my board, I am expected to put up a decent fight for the Premier League crown and reach the semi-finals of the Champions League. I have also been expected to reach the FA Cup Final and my progress in the League Cup will be assessed depending on progress in other competitions.

After notifying the board of my intention to at least challenge for the League, I have been given a decent if not unlimited transfer budget of £10m together with a £1.3m wage budget to strengthen a already a potential title-winning squad. The one position in the squad that really needed adding to was on the wings, given Ronaldo, Hargreaves and Park all out for the start of the season. With that, here are my transfer dealings before the end of August:

Players Out

Richard Eckersley - Bournemouth - Season Loan

Fabio - Gillingham - Season Loan

Players In

Marcelo - Real Madrid - £4.4m

Georginio Wijnaldum - £2.7m + 30% sell-on clause

Henri Saivet - Girondins de Bordeaux - £2.3m + 35% sell-on clause

Marcelo will provide valuable cover down the wings and can also cover for Evra in case of injuries or suspension. The youngsters Saivet and Wijnaldum will play reserve football this season and will be called upon in case of emergency in the 1st team squad. Otherwise, my squad will look like this until at least January:

http://img241.imageshack.us/img241/4843/manchesterunitedseptembra8.jpg

Progress So Far

Community Shield

The traditional curtain-raiser for the new season, as well as my 1st competitive in charge, ended on a negative note as Portsmouth sneaked a victory on penalties after a close battle. Rooney gave my side the advantage until Crouch levelled matters in the dying seconds of the 1st half. Ferdinand was the man to miss the decisive spot-kick and I was disappointed to lose but still optimistic for the new season.

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/7047/manutdvportsmouthcommunhk1.jpg

Premier League

Due to commitments in the European Super Cup, I have played one less league match than the majority of the sides but have still managed to post a 100% record from home games against Sunderland and local rivals City. Liverpool, Arsenal and Tottenham have started better than anyone while City are rock bottom despite their extravagant spending pre-season.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/6531/englishpremierdivisionswa1.jpg

European Super Cup

Following the players' dramatic penalty shoot-out triumph over Chelsea in May, we had the chance to claim victory against UEFA Cup winners Zenit in Monaco. And my players dominated proceedings winning 2-0, both goals coming from the in-form Rooney. The first trophy of my United reign rests nicely inside Old Trafford for the moment.

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/4550/zenitvmanutdeuropeansupeu7.jpg

Champions League

As holders of the Champions League and one of the top performers in Europe of the last few years, my team were placed in the 1st seeds for the draw and in return we got a reasonable and difficult group:

Man Utd

Sporting

Rangers

Galatasaray

League Cup

The first domestic cup competition has given my players a very tough home tie against fellow Premier League outfit and holders Tottenham who will be very determined to make a successful defence of the trophy they won in extra-time against Chelsea last season.

Now into September, and you will know about the season's progress in my mid-season update which will be posted in January.

What do you think of my squad and also my overall transfer dealings even this early into my United career and also what do you make of my start?

Any suggestions and advice much appreciated.

[sortitoutsi!!]

Finally found a long-term replacement for Van Der Sar

Just got my first batch of new youngsters..I'd like to introduce Steve Young

http://i445.photobucket.com/albums/qq176/jord86/young.jpg

Only 15! And has the potential to be alot better than Fosters current level of ability. Also can be one of the best players of his generation! Very rarely in the old FMs did I have a player come up through the youth academy. It's such a nice feeling!

I think I'll spend the next few hours trawling through clubs u18's now. I love this game! Except for the fact I have Arsenal and Everton away as my first 2 fixtures.

[brendanbrendanbren]

Alright, im thinking of starting a Utd game and I'm just wondering how the club's debt affects finances in the future?

Is it crippling and does it affect the transfer budget and losses made by the club alot?

Thanks in advance